Global Test

Holocaust Markers, Estonia

Commission Members Gary J. Lavine and Lee R. Seeman have been leading a Commission initiative in partnership with a British organization, the Holocaust Education Trust, to memorialize the site of 22 Nazi concentration camps and mass graves in Estonia. While some sites have markers, none accurately describe what happened there. With the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1940, all Jewish organizations and businesses were closed. In June 1941, several hundred Jews were deported. After the German occupation later that year, all of the remaining Jews who had failed to flee were murdered. The Nazis then transported tens of thousands of Jews from other European countries to Estonian camps.

In addition to raising funds for the project, Lavine and Seeman have been working closely with the leaders of the Jewish Community and the Government of Estonia to implement it. Markers have been placed at Aseri, Ereda, Kivioli, Kholta-Nomme, Klooga, Metaskalmistu, Soska, and Vaivara.